Today’s Connecticut primary will have one fewer candidate on the republican ballot, as Thomas Gilmer dropped out of the race for the 2nd Congressional District after his arrest for first-degree unlawful restraint and second-degree strangulation, the the Hartford Courant reports.
Gilmer was endorsed by the state republican Party in the primary, where his opponent is a former lieutenant colonel in the Connecticut Army National Guard who served two combat tours in Afghanistan, Justin Anderson.
The 29-year-old Gilmer was arrested on a warrant issued July 22nd relating to an incident involving a former girlfriend. The republican Party continued to support Gilmer even though there is reportedly video of the alleged assault.
“Now I find myself in a position where I must put my family and our shared Republican values before my own interests,’’ Gilmer wrote in a statement. “I cannot in good conscience move forward in this campaign while I am simultaneously forced to clear my name. And clear my name I will.”